Saturday, May 15, 2010

Walt Kelly Principles and Skills

It's easy to get distracted by Walt Kelly's beautiful linework and crosshatching and not see all the underlying principles that are part of his style.He has a lot of attributes underneath the lines that are equally impressive: Like cuteness and appeal.He draws very appealing eyes.He is good at compositions. I love the contrasts in the buildings below. Very tall against very thin.Strong lines of action.Opposing poses. The characters look alive, organic and in the moment.Nice tongue-hatching.Natural looking asymmetry (the features-eyes,etc.-are not the exact same shape and size on either side of the characters)http://comicrazys.com/2010/05/10/the-cow-jumped-over-the-mood-the-pogo-stepmother-goose-book-1954-walt-kelly/

Back in 1953 and 1954, when I was 8-ish, I had both this and "Uncle Pogo's So-So Stories" practically memorized within weeks of getting them, not to mention getting the carpet worn out rolling on the floor in hysterics over the dialog and drawings. "Good morning, cruel stepmother ol' boy." I think I can trace the life-long course my personal sense of humor took to that line.

The pictures of the cow remind me of one thing that really stood out to me when I was an eight-year-old kid falling in love with Kelly through reprints of the books: he had this tendency to retain the vertical construction line along the center of a form. Moreso on complex forms like the cow's snoot, where he feathered it with lots of little lines, but you'd see this on the simpler characters as well.

Kelly took foundations from principles of animation and from early 20th century newspaper illustration, and made them uniquely his own. America lost him far, far too early.I think he added a sensibility which flowed harmoniously within the world he created on paper and seasoned it with the smartness of Mark Twain and perhaps of Herblock.Progressives turned to him every day to get his keen insight on the absurdity of the 1964 and 1968 election cycle more than anyone else, yet today, in the world Garry Trudeau made, Kelly is barely thought about.Kelly needs to be thought about in the same sense and tradition as George Herriman: two of the most important and exquisite graphic auteurs of their respective generations.